Studio Brief 3 - Collateral

Studio Brief 3 - Collaborative Practise - Leeds Library Exhibition Branding 

Collateral 

Although we were all assigned different aspects of the collateral to work on we felt it was important for us all to contribute to the designs to ensure we were all happy with the final outcomes and to ensure it was a collaborative effort which would ensure the outcome could be as successful as possible. we also felt a collaborative approach to all designs would ensure that there is continuity between our breath of designs so they look like they are part of the same proposal. This will ensure they are instantly recognisable if someone were to pick up a flyer at Colours May Vary then see the poster 3 days later they would be able to instantly link them together to strengthen the branding of the exhibition. 

Posters:

Megan and Jack collaboratively oversaw the main design of the posters. We all came uo with a range of initial poster ideas that all followed slightly different design directions. The posters took inspiration from the MOMA branding as during a critique Megan said she was particularly influenced by how there series of posters work as a set that work together well. We felt this could work with our logo as a set of posters of the 4 and 5 that could well side by side. They could also work well separately as they both contain all the relevant information. 

I like the bold aesthetic of these designs as they work well in attracting the attention of an audience. I like the minimalistic design as it uses plenty of white space which reflects the exhibition space and the contemporary feel of our concept. We chose to add a contemporary burst of orange into all of our designs to brighten up the monotone colour scheme and make the designs more engaging we felt orange worked well as it was bold and contemporary. 

Jack then produced the basis for the stand alone poster that provided us with an alternative to the series similar to the MOMA branding. We felt it was important to have a poster that could work effectively on its own however we felt both were strong concepts so decided to use both within our concept proposal, using the MOMA inspired posters as a side by side set and jacks minimal contemporary poster as an informative stand alone design that still works within the set due to consistency with typographic choices, type size and colour scheme.  I like this design as it is again very contemporary and fits the theme of our concept proposal  we felt this variation was the most appropriate as the square text alignment relates to the frame within the logo and the squares thought our branding. 

We all took part in creating initial poster ideas and were heavily involved within the development of the posters to ensure we all agreed that with the style used and that they worked well together and also in harmony with the rest of the collateral designs. below highlights some of the testing and development that allowed us to create such strong final resolutions. 

Invitations:

Myself and Harriet worked together in designing the invitations we wanted to create a sophisticated and contemporary design that would be entice the receivers of the invitation to attend the event. We wanted this design to represent our concept as it would typically be the first form of collateral guests will receive. We started by designing some sophisticated monotone invitation that we felt reflected the aesthetic of our concept well however during later development with the group we found it would be very time consuming to handwrite the  name of ever invitation and felt a generic invitation would be more effective. 

I considered the overall continuity of our concept and redesigned a more generic invitation based on group feedback. I chose to develop the stand alone poster design and format it into a sophisticated and contemporary invitation. It uses a similar design with the logo watermarked into the background and a similar typographic aesthetic reading 'private viewing invitation' We felt this would add a sense of exclusivity to the opening night event and would make the receiver of the invitation feel valued and important.  We used a white background on the reverse to create further continuity to our MOMA inspired series of posters and also improve text legibility. The key information is set at the top of the invitation so the date time etc can be seen at a glance with the subsequent information explaining more about the exhibition and the collection of students work. I feel this invitation works well as it is sophisticated and contemporary which creates continuity with our other collateral and reflects there theme of our concept well. 

Alternative Invitation 

I also created an alternative invitation which could be produced on  higher budget tier as it is cold from an A3 sheet. I was inspired by innovative folding techniques I had researched and wanted to increase the in interactivity of the invitation. I created this innovative folding invitation that works extremely well with the concept as it features and angled fold similar to the angled slash featured throughout our branding. I feel this invitation would be a souvenir invitation that guests would want to keep due to the quality the design, it also features all of the names of the designers present within the exhibition making it more personal. The invitation will open to reveal the important information then further fold out to reveal a commemorative poster of the exhibition, I think the stand alone poster would work best due to its simplistic contemporary style. To make the invitation more eye-catching we trailed the invitation in orange stock to keep a monotone colour scheme we felt this worked well and if the budget allowed would consider using G F Smith stock to give the invitation a luxury feel.

Flyers:

Thea produced most of the flyer designs again with constant development and feedback from the rest of the group. She experimented with photography using imagery from in and around the Leeds Central Library we though this worked well as it would be recognisable to people who know Leeds as it is an iconically beautiful building. We innovatively incorporated this into the logo to create some sophisticated designs and added an orange overlay to keep within our colour scheme. 

We ultimately decided that we should avoid using the photography as it wasn't consistent with the other elements of our collateral and we wanted all our designs to have continuity and flow really well. We felt this would make a strong brand identity for the exhibition and make it stand out to its audience. For the final design we chose to use the large logo on the front to reinforce the brand identity and included the Leeds College of Art logo to reinforce the student influence behind the exhibition. We felt that stark black background worked well in keeping to our developing sophisticated theme and would have a great aesthetic if printed on good quality thick stop that feels great in the hand. The reverse design uses a white background which allows the flyer design to link into the MOMA inspired series of posters we have created and also creates further continuity with the invitations. It uses the contemporary orange to highlight all the imprint information at a glance and then continues to tell the reader more information about the exhibition and the inspiration behind it. 

Exhibition Catalogue:

Megan lead the development of the exhibition catalogue, we wanted to produce a contemporary publication similar to the BA graduate catalogue which included a range of full bleed images, white space and sophisticated spreads. She created the basis for a grid to structure the catalogue and came up with the great concept to have to book in two halves facing different directions. This works well in distinguishing the level 4 and 5 students and makes the catalogue more interactive. The cover design also creates a great sense of continuity with the set of posters which will work extremely well together. The catalogue contains information about the exhibition space, the concept behind the event, information about the students. We also created a smaller variation that did not include the students work to save on cost which makes the design more flexible dependant on the final budget. 

The mock ups we produced looked great and we loved the interactively of having to flip the catalogue have way through. I feel the final design is a really contemporary publication that works well in informing the audience about the event and works well to adhere to the brand we are creating. 

Website:

Jack created a mock up of what a possible website could look like, although we realised that we would probably not have the resources time or budget to create a fully functioning live website from scratch we thought we could include it in our proposal and then work with free website builders to create a similar aesthetic as well as drawing on key social media such as Facebook and hashtags to promote the event. The design of this website similarly to the rest of our collateral as a cool contemporary aesthetic that would look great on screen. I like the final design of this website as it links with the invitation design and the stand alone poster to create a sophisticated central hub for the home of our exhibition where users could easily access information. 

Overall I feel we strongly succeeded in articulating the vision of our concept through our collateral designs. All of the collateral designs have a great deal of continuity from a standardised typefaces and point sizes to using the same pantone selections across the range of designs. I feel we have truly succeeded in working collaboratively as the designs do not look like a different designer has designed each piece which I feel stingers our brand and concept. I think the designs look really professional and would look great within their real life applications.